Canes Coaches Connecting from Afar
By Christy Cabrera Chirinos
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The first few minutes of every weekly video call are the same.
There is laughter. Music is playing. Compliments are exchanged as some players show off new hairstyles or whatever quarantine-styled outfit they’ve put together.
And as everyone logs in and familiar faces fill her screen, Hurricanes women’s basketball coach Katie Meier smiles, taking in this little bit of normalcy in what has become a strange new reality for college coaches not just at Miami, but across the country.
“I have no control. I can tell you that right now. It’s like, ‘Ladies, ladies, ladies! Hey! It’s Coach! It’s time for me to talk!,” Meier laughed. “They are just so excited to talk to each other. It’s like herding cats, they are so excited. So much energy. … It’s mayhem, but it’s good energy.”
In the weeks since college campuses were closed, sports were paused and the NCAA made the decision to cancel its winter and spring championships for the remainder of the school year, Meier and her colleagues have had to find creative ways to stay remotely connected to the student-athletes they’re used to seeing pretty regularly.
In an instant, college coaches – some of the most hands-on people in the world – had to find a way to do their jobs in the most hands-off ways possible.
Weekly or daily video calls on platforms like Zoom have become the norm. Athletes communicate with their coaches and each other via FaceTime or group chats. Strength and conditioning coaches have developed voluntary workouts to guide athletes who may want to get in some exercise while they’re under quarantine. And making sure academic work is completed through the University’s remote and distance learning programs remains a priority.
It hasn’t always been easy to navigate this new world, but Miami’s coaches have powered through. Like millions of Americans, they’ve tried to keep things in perspective, not only for their student-athletes, but for themselves and their own families, too.
“This all, I think, just kind of punched us all in the face pretty intensely there,” said women’s tennis coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews. “First, the season is postponed, then the NCAAs get canceled and there’s the uncertainty of wondering for your kids, is this potentially how it could end for a senior? Still, the main focus is the seriousness of this virus and of people’s health. You watch TV and you see that people are in really bad shape. I always tell my kids, ‘This is tennis. This is hitting balls between lines.’
“We as a program haven’t really sat around and felt sorry for ourselves about the ending of the season. Our girls and our staff are sympathetic enough and understanding enough to understand there’s a lot more out there than sports right now and this puts everything in perspective for people.”
With their sports paused, coaches are determined to make sure Miami’s student-athletes have all the resources they need to get through this unsettling time, physically, mentally and emotionally.
Meier and her staff are keeping a close eye on whether players are completing remote assignments and fitting in extra study-hall sessions when possible. After returning from the ACC Tournament, one of men’s basketball coach Jim Larrañaga’s first priorities was making sure his players were situated with both housing and meals.
And both football coach Manny Diaz and women’s soccer coach Sarah Barnes have made it a focus to have both structure and community for their respective teams.
For Miami’s football players, that means virtual team meetings, check-ins with their position coaches and some film study. Hurricanes soccer players, in the meantime, have themed chats to continue creating the chemistry Barnes knows they will need once it’s time to return to the field.
“When the world sort of comes to a stop, what we all lose is our structure. We lose the structure of going to class, when our workouts are, when we drive to work. Everything is suddenly formless. That’s not how we’re best designed to operate. That’s not how humans are best designed to operate. That’s not how football teams are best designed to operate,” Diaz said. “So what we tried to create a structure as much as we possibly could, where the day has some sort of rhythm that somewhat mimics what we were doing when we were all able to be with one another. And the second thing is community. We are all in some sort of self-isolation. And, what we have to keep is we have to keep our feeling of community. If we can’t be physically together, we’ve got to be emotionally, mentally and in some ways, spiritually tied to one another. If we’re not, that can go down a bad road as well.”
Added Barnes, whose soccer players exchange messages on Mindset Mondays, Witty Wednesdays and Favorite-Picture Friday, “Obviously, people can train on their own. It’s hard, but they can do it. But, that team chemistry and the culture that you build from being around each other every day, that’s hard to create when you’re away from each other. … So, we wanted to make sure that we know what was going on with everyone and that they were okay and their families were okay. We just wanted to make sure we were still connecting and remembering why we do what we do.”
There are, of course, sport-specific challenges facing the Hurricanes.
Miami’s football team – which, as it stands now, could be one of the first teams to return to action if college sports were to resume in the fall – was in the process of installing a new offense when spring drills were stopped.
New coaches – including offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, offensive line coach Garin Justice and receivers coach Rob Likens – were still getting to know their players on and off the field when the team broke for spring break and was then forced to cancel its 11 remaining workouts.
Coaches are trying to teach as best they can and technology has helped. But Diaz and his staff know it’s not the same as being able to be on the Greentree Practice Field.
“We all get better by doing, right? That’s time you can’t make up, actually going out there and going through the physical repetitions,” Diaz said. “However, we are all blessed with more time on our hands than we know what to do with, so, being able to take this indefinite amount of time and to really be able to go slow and talk through some things and whether those are what we’re installing, plays we’re running, you can really get into the nuts and bolts of why something is the way it should be and that gives you a chance to maybe teach in a little bit of a different layer than if the practices were coming at you hot and heavy.”
Justice, meanwhile, has tried to spend some of his time on video chats asking his players questions about things other than football, in an effort to learn more about the young men he’ll be coaching.
It’s made a difference, the coach said.
“The biggest thing we’re trying to do right now is, aside from making sure we do everything from football, from academics, we’re trying to work on that connection piece,” Justice said. “We’ve asked them questions to try and get those guys to open up, like ‘Who’s your biggest hero?’ and get those guys to talk about it and why. ‘What’s the biggest loss or heartbreak you’ve had in your life? What’s the biggest moment you’ve had in your life?’ And usually, when you’re meeting, you can hear some guys kind of talking. You ask about their biggest heartbreak and one guy talks about losing his brother and you hear everyone get quiet. Everyone focuses. When guys start hearing those things from each other, you get a higher level connection that goes on.”
While Miami’s coaches don’t know how much longer they’ll physically be away from their teams and their players, each has made it clear those players remain their top priorities.
And when it’s time to get back on the field, back in the gym or back on the court, they’ll be more than ready to return to their regular routines.
“I can do end of the year player meetings now. I can still do my staff evaluations. We can help our players finish strong academically,” Meier said. “But the face-to-face contact … just the hugs. I miss the hugs.”
